Federal appeals court upholds Apple e-book settlement News
Federal appeals court upholds Apple e-book settlement

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website] on Wednesday upheld [order, PDF] a $450 million settlement between Apple [corporate website] and consumers who claimed that the company conspired with other e-book retailers to artificially raise the price of e-books. John Bradley was challenging the fairness, reasonableness and adequacy of the settlement, which would require Apple to pay $400 million to compensate consumers plus $50 million in legal fees if liability findings are upheld. The Second Circuit rejected Bradley’s claims Wednesday, finding that the lower court judge did not abuse her powers in approving the settlement.

Apple reached the $450 million settlement in 2014, shortly after a federal judge found [JURIST reports] that Apple violated the Sherman Antitrust Act [text] when it entered into deals with five major book publishers for the iBookstore. The Second Circuit upheld [opinion, PDF] that decision in June. In October Apple appealed that decision [JURIST report] to the US Supreme Court [official website], which has yet to act on the matter. Throughout the entire legal process, Apple has claimed that it is innocent and committed no wrongdoing.

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